Artificial Intelligence in English Language Linguistics and Teaching: Emerging Research Trends

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping English language linguistics and teaching through automated language analysis, generative text production, speech technologies, adaptive feedback, and data-rich classroom inquiry. This chapter examines emerging research trends at the intersection of AI, English linguistics, and English language teaching (ELT), with attention to large language models (LLMs), corpus-informed pedagogy, automated writing evaluation, speech and pronunciation technologies, conversational agents, multimodal learning, teacher professional competence, assessment redesign, and ethical governance. Rather than treating AI as a single tool, the chapter frames it as a sociotechnical ecology that changes how language is described, learned, assessed, and taught. It synthesizes foundational ideas from natural language processing, computer-assisted language learning, applied linguistics, and recent systematic reviews of generative AI in language education. The chapter argues that the most productive research agenda is not whether AI should replace teachers or human interaction, but how educators can design principled, transparent, inclusive, and linguistically plural uses of AI that strengthen learner agency and language awareness. It concludes with a research framework, classroom design principles, and priorities for longitudinal, multilingual, and equity-oriented studies.